WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in calling out the White House for declaring SignalGate—the most devastating and significant national security breach in years—“case-closed” without holding any senior Administration officials responsible for leaking classified information through an unclassified communications channel, putting the lives of our servicemembers at greater risk. The Senators held a press conference where they called on Republicans to demand congressional hearings and an independent investigation to look into the Trump officials on the Signal chat—urging their colleagues on the other side of the aisle to remember that they serve the people of this country, not Donald Trump’s ego.
“The Signal chat security breach reaffirms what we have known all along—that Trump’s national security officials are fundamentally unfit to serve,” said Senator Hirono. “Sharing attack plans, timing, and targets on devices that may well be compromised by adversaries endangered the lives of our servicemembers. Despite jeopardizing our national security, no one involved in this debacle has offered any assurance that this will not happen again or taken accountability for their actions. That is unacceptable. Democrats will continue working to understand exactly how this grave security breach happened and hold those responsible for this fiasco accountable.”
Following the Signal chat security breach, Senator Hirono has remained vocal about holding accountable the national security officials who were involved. Last week Senator Hirono joined her colleagues in sending a letter to President Donald Trump demanding answers about several Cabinet officials’ accidental adding of a reporter to an unsecured group chat where secret, high-level military planning was occurring, in violation of security protocols and potentially in violation of the law. Senator Hirono also joined her colleagues in a letter calling on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold hearings to investigate why members of President Trump’s national security team were recklessly and illegally discussing classified military operations on unsecured devices.
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